DD aged 6, year 2. Sustained a minor face injury yesterday at school. School dealt with it, called me but she stayed at school and then ASC. She bruises quite easily and badly even from seemingly minor injuries – she fell off her scooter onto grass at Christmas and her shin was bruised for about 3 weeks. She has a medical condition that means this is normal and common for her.
She has a bruise on her face where the injury happened. It’s quite red and prominent as it’s on her cheek, but she’s absolutely fine in herself, chatting away to me, ate her tea last night and her breakfast this morning absolutely fine. I am so used to DDs injuries due to her medical condition that I always on the lookout for signs of concussion, she’s shown no worrying signs at all apart from the red bruised cheek.
She had a dentist appointment before school today. Dentist asked about her cheek and she told him that Josh* got a bit upset while she was getting her picture out of her tray, that surprised her a bit too much and she hit her cheek on the corner of the trays (I assume she means the unit the trays are in) but it’s ok because she didn’t cry and Mrs Smith got her an ice pack and let her choose who to sit with for the rest of the day and that’s brilliant because she got to choose her very best friend Alicia.
I showed the dentist when asked the school accident form. Dentist then asked the normal questions about DDs teacher and headteacher did she like school, did she like her headteacher etc. He then asked her if it definitely happened at school and not at home (fair enough safeguarding and all that), DD answered “Yes it was in the 2A classroom, Mrs Smith called my mummy to tell her, I heard her” he then asked DD if she does everything she’s told to by her teacher, which of course DD answered yes to (she’s 6 and absolutely adores her teacher and school so of course she’ll do what she’s told to).
He then proceeded to ask me if I was sure Josh hadn’t pushed her face into, was I sure the school weren’t covering up bullying as DD is so small (she is very small compared to her classmates hence why she probably hit her face as the units are slightly taller than her).
Dentist then said he was reporting the incident to SS as he wasn’t convinced by DDs explanation.
So what will happen now? I left DDs dad due to DV in 2017 and for a time after I left him had SS involvement as he was threatening to hurt DD and kidnap her if I didn’t go back to him. He is now allowed unsupervised visits with DD (court ordered) but he very rarely chooses to see her and school are all over her when she’s been, asking her questions about what they did and if anything happened or if daddy asked her to keep any secrets. I am terrified of losing DD because of this or the school, who are brilliant and really do genuinely care about DD and her medical conditions getting into trouble for what amounts to a very minor injury. We were late to school by 10 minutes due to the appointment (school aware) but am worried this will look bad on me too.
*Obviously not real names or classes